Days of Delhi's Kamala Market numbered?

New Delhi, Mar 9: Kamala Market, the historic municipal mart and a veritable city landmark, may soon give way to a high-rise commercial complex.

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation, as part of its budget has firmed up plans to replace the over 60-year-old bazaar, dubbed Asia's biggest air-cooler market, with a multi-storeyed building complex to "increase the revenues".

"Commercial spaces like Kamala Market and Ghaffar Market, only couple of storey high and built years ago, have now grown decrepit and are occupying space. By replacing them with modern commercial complexes we seek to utilise the space as well as increase the revenues for the civic body," NDMC Standing Committee Chairman Mohan Bhardwaj said.

Built in the 1950s and named after the wife of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Kamala Market now faces an uncertain future. The old market, inaugurated by the first President Rajendra Prasad, with its now-faded clock-tower, located next to the New Delhi railway station is part of the city's immediate post-colonial heritage.

"As part of the budget for this year, we looked into ways of augmenting our revenues and these old markets, among others, we thought could become sources of revenues," Bhardwaj said.

Ghaffar Market, located in central Delhi's Karol Bagh and also built in the 1950s, and famous for its 'dubious' electronic goods too is most likely to make way for a high-rise complex, the Corporation said.

Built with a cost of Rs 5.3 lakh, it was once Delhi's spacious market but is now largely crowded owing to increasing population and vehicular traffic and parking problems.

But shopkeepers at Kamala Market are not so happy at the prospect of losing "one of the oldest markets in the city" after independence.

"You can look at the condition here, decaying walls, the clock-tower that doesn't work, and people urinating around its premises, it is awful. And, instead of dismantling it, why can't they just restore it as a heritage market? It will also bring revenues from tourism," a shopkeeper said.